Maybe it was more in the animation somewhere, but I don't remember when Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow became associated with them. But Hasbro, in general, seems to love them, look at the Spider-Man and Lizard pics that leaked. Seems that all the Marvel movie lines have come with some type of motorcycle or 4-wheeler and they're back again for this film.

I like the looks of the Combat Cruiser and Ghost Hawk II, the Tread Ripper may not be that bad and, while it's not necessarily my thing, the Water Moccasin (don't think I can call it the FangBoat with a straight face) in Cobra color isn't terrible.

Not sure what's up with the GI Joe Trooper w/ the Cobra gear unless it's a Spy Troops type thing. The Trooper photo that USAToday posted looked excellent so I'm not sure what's up with this.

And then, Jinx. She's on my top 10 list of characters I wanted to see updated and now to have her at SDCC? Knowing that HTS.com, if they sell after the show, will probably have learned nothing from last year's fiasco just makes my blood boil.

E...

Logged

"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

Hasbro has said they're pulling articulation and now we have proof. It's a bad deal all around. Not every figure is losing articulation, the new GI Joe Trooper and some others have a new ankle joint, but in general, yeah, big loss of articulation. One thing that sucks, I haven't seen any ankle articulation on any of the Roadblock figs yet. I'm also worred about wrists now too. Those are harder to tell.

I need more time to get past what we're losing vs what we're getting. I'm just angry right now.

E...

Logged

"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

I'd really hate to think they sacrificed articulation for those gimmicky launchers to keep the price at $9 (which I noticed Joes cost at Target now) but it appears they did. Damn it. I had a big bag of those missile launchers I threw in recycling from ROC, and I really didn't want to do it again, though I'll buy these anyway.

Wow, the articulation thing slipped right by me... THAT is something to REALLY be pissed over... The price sucks and now the poseability too? That was all that made me, as a kid, buy GI Joes. I wanted more fun figures, and they quickly replaced Star Wars as my favorites because they were poseable.

That's really some bull****. Especially with them owning the license and reusing parts as much as they do with GI Joe. That sucks and makes it easy to pass on some guys.

I think losing ankle articulation isn't the end of the world, if youg et a price drop to go with it. You should never lose the elbow, shoulder, knee, and hip joints though. That's what makes the line's figures good.

I'm going to nab the Cobra trooper (a functional parachute? Awesome), and the Joe trooper I think, and then call it a day I believe. Unless they make an awesome flint or something. I always liked Flint and didn't like his 25th figure with the goofy forearm joint.

Zartan's also a maybe.

I'm really bummed to hear about the driver articulation though. That's a nutpunch.

I don't know if they sacrificed articulation in favor of the spring loaded guns, they didn't for RoC, and Hasbro has usually said the pack-ins and accessories don't impact the price of the figures. This is just going to be a trend on all their lines, I believe, and we'll probably have to get used to it.

One of my main questions is, how will this impact repacks? Since a major investment, sculpting and tooling, will already be taken care of, I'd hope that we'd still see plenty of classic characters and kitbashes using the existing library. But will we see fewer overall releases per year of that type of figure?

E...

Logged

"I sell the drugs that keep you people from seeing dragons at night." - Gus "Psych"

I'm probably an outsider with this, but I don't care about missing ankle articulation. In the case of Cobra Commander, it greatly improves the look of the sculpted boot. I don't mind ball jointed knees instead of double hinged knees. Both styles of articulation accomplish the same goal, and both have some minor tradeoffs. I also don't mind swivel wrists instead of ball jointed wrists, despite the ball joint wrists being much better. If there is any lesson that the Joe line can learn from Star Wars, it's that not every character needs super duper articulation. As long as "the essentials" (ball joint neck, shoulders, elbows, hips; movement at waist/torso, wrists, and knees) are covered I don't see any reason to complain. That being said...

The vehicle drivers are absolute bull****. It's a total slap in the face to collectors and kids. A great part about the Joe vehicles was getting a normal figure included, even if it was just a cobbled together "frankenJoe." The new statues won't even fit in with normal Joe figures. No vehicle drivers would have been better than the **** we're getting. It's even more aggravating that such cool designs (Clutch and VAMP Driver in particular) are being wasted with only five POAs... total BS.

People may be jumping the gun on the lack of articulation. Those photos are always doctored up.

But if there is less articulation. I don't understand. Is it really cheaper to tool up new molds with limited articulation than to recolor an existing one with articulation? I doubt most if any of the larger vehicle drivers are in the film. GI JOE's Hasbro's brand and they don't have to pay licensing compared to Marvel or Star Wars, unless the film likenesses are a factor. Plus they rehash vehicle molds, too.

GI JOE's legacy was the moveable fighting man, and whenever they've reduced articulation, the line has sucked and sucked hard (Extreme, the first Gi JOE Vs. Cobra figures in 2002, those little sigma six 2.5" things).

Where is everyone getting that these are less articulated? Most of the pictures are too small to even tell, and the basic figures look like they've got all the standard points, except ankles in a few cases where shin guards would limit it anyway.

check out all of the pics for details on each figure. Ankles are not a huge issue as most of us are in agreement with, but scroll down on the above link and click on the vehicles to see the vehicle drivers.....

Ouch, I am by no means an articulation junkie, I can live without stuff like ankles and double knees, but yeah, the vehicle drivers are a bit much. It's a move I'd expect from a company like Mattel, not Hasbro. Seems they're cutting corners on all thier movie lines lately, the Transformers movie line seems to have shrunk and is 80% repaints now, Avengers lost POA's and now even Joe. If I were to theorize, I'd wager it's because they've taken hits on thier past movie lines, putting a bunch of money into fully articulated figures only for most of them to wind up on clearance. We'll have to wait and see if it affects the non movie line offerings that follow. Lets hope not, Joe is one of the few lines left that actually gives you pack in figs with the vehicles. They're the only reason I bothered with some of them.